Britain faces a “decade of Russian aggression” but is not ready to fight a war, according to the man who may soon be in charge of the armed forces.
Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey wants Britain to “lead the charge” in the defence of Europe and is planning major reforms so the country can rise to dangerous challenges.
His first mission is tackling the legacy of the Jeremy Corbyn era and convincing the UK that Labour can be trusted to deter all foes.
He said: “Keir Starmer – within days of becoming leader in April 2020 – pledged never again would Labour go into an election not trusted on national security.”
The veteran of the Blair and Brown governments will face the greatest challenge of his political life if Labour wins power and he moves into the Ministry of Defence.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express, he said: “Our biggest weakness is the state of our armed forces and a system which is not geared up to deter and if necessary to fight the conflicts that this century threatens us with.”
A cross-party group of MPs last month warned of a “recruitment crisis” and the size of the regular Army is due to fall to just 73,000 soldiers.
Mr Healey said it is the “smallest since we fought Napoleon” and he is “deeply concerned about the scale of the cuts” at a time when Nato aims to increase its “high-readiness” forces from around 40,000 to more than 300,000.
He insists Britain must not show weakness in the face of the resurgent threat from Russia, warning that “if Putin wins in Ukraine, he won’t stop in Ukraine”.
“The defence of the UK starts in the Ukraine,” Mr Healey said. “He is a brutal dictator who wants to redraw international boundaries by force. The Ukrainians are fighting for their own freedom and future, but they are also fighting to defend the values we hold dear as well.”
Stressing the need for Britain to show greater leadership in Nato and deepen cooperation with France, Germany and the EU, he said the UK faces a “decade of Russia aggression and this is why we have to increase the protections”.
“We’ve given a commitment that if we form a government we will lead the charge on all those fronts,” he added.
With Donald Trump looking increasingly likely to be the Republican candidate in November’s US presidential election, a future Labour government could face working with a very different leader to Joe Biden.
But Mr Healey says Mr Trump was right to “put pressure on all the Nato nations to meet their spending commitments” and he insists states must take greater responsibility for defence.
He said: “European nations have to accept we must do more of the heavy lifting within Nato because the US – whoever is president – will increasingly focus on China and the Indo-Pacific.”
On the key question of whether a Labour government would boost investment in the armed forces, Mr Healey, 64, said: “We’ll make our hard commitments on what we spend when we can judge what’s needed but Labour will always spend what’s required to defend the country.”
And on the challenge of potentially taking on one of the most demanding jobs in government amid international uncertainty, he said: “The era of seeing conflict as something that happens in other parts of the world is over and we must prepare our country – and in particular we must prepare our armed forces – to be able to deter those threats and if necessary to take them on and defeat them.”
